A Cyprus-registered tanker spilled 30,000 gallons of crude oil into the Delaware River between Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, creating a 20-mile-long slick that killed dozens of birds and threatened other wildlife.
Links: Cyprus, Environment, Pennsylvania, New Jersey

2004 Dec 17

European Union leaders and Turkey agreed on a compromise formula to overcome differences over Turkish recognition of Cyprus' government as a condition for opening EU membership talks.
Links: Turkey, EU, Cyprus

2005 Feb 20

Nearly 150,000 Turkish Cypriots and illegal mainland settlers voted in a parliamentary election for a government only recognized by Turkey but which is seen as a barometer of prospects for reunification of the war-divided island. The pro-reunification governing party of Mehmet Ali Talat won.
Links: Turkey, Cyprus

The new Turkish Cypriot government of Premier Ferdi Sabit Soyer won a vote of confidence in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state.
Links: Cyprus

2005 Jul 29

Turkey signed an accord extending its customs union with the EU to Cyprus and other new EU members, a key step toward opening membership talks with the bloc.
Links: Turkey, EU, Cyprus

2005 Aug 14

A Cypriot airliner, Helios Air 737, crashed into a hill north of Athens, killing all 121 people on board. An inquiry in 2006 ruled pilots erred in setting pressurization controls. On April 20, 2012, three executives of a defunct Cypriot airline and a British engineer were each sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison for their role in Greece's worst air crash. The ruling came four months after a Cypriot court acquitted the three executives during a separate hearing over the accident.
Links: Cyprus, Air Crash, Greece

2005 Sep 21

EU nations agreed that Turkey must recognize EU member Cyprus during its membership talks, warning that non-recognition could lead to paralysis in the negotiations.
Links: Turkey, EU, Cyprus

2005 Dec 22

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered Turkey to put in place within three months an effective reparations mechanism for Greek Cypriots who were stripped of their possessions in the 1970s.
Links: Turkey, EU, Cyprus

Greek Cypriots voted to elect a new parliament on this divided island, their first vote since rejecting a UN reunification plan. Voters put their weight behind parties in President Tassos Papadopoulos' governing coalition, a result likely to be seen as an endorsement of his rejection of a UN plan to reunify this war-divided island.
Links: Cyprus

2006 Jun 12

EU foreign ministers reached agreement with Cyprus on a formula to enable Turkey to take its first step in detailed accession talks with the 25-nation bloc.
Links: Turkey, EU, Cyprus

2006 Jul 16

Hundreds of exhausted evacuees flew into Cyprus as Western countries moved their citizens from the Middle East amid continued Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.
Links: Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon

2006 Sep 4

In Cyprus 3 British holidaymakers were charged with willful manslaughter over the death of a Cypriot teenager in a hit-and-run accident in the coastal resort of Protaras last month. A rented Opel "repeatedly rammed" the moped in what police described as a revenge attack following a fight outside a Protaras disco in which a friend of the accused was beaten up.
Links: Britain, Cyprus

Scientists said a mouse living in the Troodos Mountains of western Cyprus, that predates the arrival of man, represents a new species, Mus cypriacus.
Links: Cyprus, Animal

2006 Dec 5

The EU presidency backed a proposal to partially suspend EU membership talks with Turkey because of Ankara's refusal to open up to trade with Cyprus.
Links: Turkey, EU, Cyprus

2006 Dec 7

Turkey offered to open a major seaport and an airport to longtime foe Cyprus to try to keep its EU entry talks on track. The EU called the step positive but insufficient.
Links: Turkey, EU, Cyprus

2006 Dec 11

European Union foreign ministers decided to suspend 8 out of 35 parts of entry talks with Turkey over Ankara's refusal to open its ports to trade with EU member Cyprus.
Links: Turkey, EU, Cyprus

2007 Jan 16

Benon Sevan (69) of Cyprus, former UN oil-for-food chief, was charged with taking a $160,000 bribe to influence who could buy Iraqi oil during the $64 billion program that ran from 1996-2003. This brought to 14 the number of people charged in the case.
Links: Iraq, Oil, Cyprus, UN, Food

TimelinesA text-based site.

2007 Mar 9

Greek Cypriots demolished a wall along the boundary that for decades has split Europe's last divided capital, a dramatic gesture that officials hope will kick-start reconciliation on the Mediterranean island. Plastic and metal screens replaced the wall.
Links: Cyprus

2007 Jul 2

Thomas Mooney (45), a senior American diplomat who disappeared four days ago with his car, was found dead on Cyprus in a rural area outside the capital.
Links: USA, Cyprus

Two men hijacked a Turkish passenger plane from Cyprus bound for Istanbul, holding several people hostage for more than four hours before surrendering.
Links: Turkey, Cyprus, Hijacking

2007 Aug 30

A cargo ship, anchored about 2 miles from Israel's coast near the port city of Haifa, when it was hit by the Salamis Glory, a Cypriot passenger ship. 11 crew escaped from the sinking cargo ship. The first mate and engineer, both residents of Slovakia, were missing.
Links: Cyprus, Israel, Ship

Conservationists said illegal trappers on Cyprus killed more than half a million protected birds this fall for sale at local restaurants.
Links: Cyprus, Food, Animal, Birds

2008 Jan 1

EU newcomers Cyprus and Malta adopted the euro, bringing to fifteen the number of countries using the currency with increasing clout over the slumping US dollar.
Links: EU, Cyprus, Malta

2008 Feb 17

Communist party leader Demetris Christofias (61) led in exit polls in Cyprus elections. Pres. Tassos Papadopoulos was eliminated in the first round and Christofias will face former Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides (59) in a run-off on Feb 24.
Links: Cyprus

2008 Feb 24

Greek Cypriots elected Dimitris Christofias, leader of the Communist Akel Party, as its new president with just over 53 percent of the vote, ahead of conservative former Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides with 46.6 percent. Christofias had campaigned on a pledge to act quickly to restart long-stalled talks to reunify the island.
Links: Cyprus

2008 Mar 21

The Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders agreed to restart peace talks on reunifying their ethnically split island, and to open a crossing in the heart of the divided capital.
Links: Cyprus

Ledra Street, a main shopping street in Cyprus' divided capital that had come to symbolize the island's ethnic partition, reopened for the first time in 44 years, boosting hopes for a renewed drive to reunify Cyprus. Authorities were forced to close it for nearly two hours following a dispute over how to police the street.
Links: Cyprus

2008 Apr 11

In Cyprus Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat crossed over to the Greek Cypriot part of the island's ethnically divided capital, the first head of the Turkish Cypriot north to do so in more than three decades.
Links: Cyprus

2008 Apr

In Cyprus human bones from mass graves of some 100 individuals dating back 30-40 years were laid out for relatives to collect for reburial. Almost 1500 Greek-Cypriots and some 500 Turkish-Cypriots had long been listed as missing persons.
Links: Cyprus

2008 Jun 13

An int’l. bird conservation group reported that over 1 million birds had been illegally trapped and killed in Cyprus over the past year to be served as local delicacies.
Links: Cyprus, Birds

2008 Jul 3

The Cypriot parliament approved the European Union treaty, making Cyprus the 20th EU member to ratify the document aimed at streamlining decision-making in the bloc.
Links: EU, Cyprus

Cyprus' rival Greek and Turkish leaders, Demetris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat, started new peace talks and said they hoped for a deal soon aimed at reuniting an island divided by war 34 years ago.
Links: Cyprus

2008 Sep 10

Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat said he accepts a reduction of Turkey's military contingent but that his side will still need security guarantees from Ankara as part of a deal to unite the divided island.
Links: Turkey, Cyprus

2008 Oct 30

Scientists reported that 1 in 17 men living on the coasts of North Africa and southern Europe may have a Phoenician direct male line ancestor. Evidence was based on Y-chromosomes collected in Cyprus, Malta, Morocco, the West Bank, Syria and Tunisia.
Links: Cyprus, Malta, Palestine, Syria, Morocco, DNA, Tunisia

2008 Nov 8

A group of European lawmakers sailed from Cyprus into Gaza, defying an internationally backed blockade of the Hamas-run territory with activists promising to send more visitors and goods to end the coastal strip's isolation.
Links: EU, Cyprus, Israel, Palestine

2008 Dec 12

Tassos Papadopoulos (b.1934), Cyprus' hardline former president (2003-2008), died of lung cancer in Nicosia. He had ushered the divided island into the European Union (2004) after rallying Greek Cypriots to reject a UN peace deal.
Links: Cyprus

TimelinesA text-based site.

2009 Jan 29

The ship Monchegorsk arrived in Cyprus. It was examined twice after it arrived under suspicion of ferrying weapons from Iran to Hamas fighters in Gaza, and detained. The US military had stopped the ship last month in the Red Sea, and said it found artillery shells and other arms on board. But it could not legally detain the ship, which continued to Port Said, Egypt, and then to Cyprus.
Links: USA, Cyprus, Palestine, Ship

2009 Apr 19

Turkish Cypriot nationalists won a parliamentary election that could stifle a promising effort to reunite Cyprus, an ethnically divided island. The right-wing National Unity Party (UBP), led by Dervish Eroglu, garnered 44% of the vote. The ruling leftist Republican Turkish Party (CTP), of Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, won 29%.
Links: Cyprus

2009 Apr 28

An EU court ruled that judges in Cyprus can compel the return of land seized after the 1974 Turkish invasion.
Links: EU, Cyprus, Real Estate

2009 Sep 9

The US, Britain, Cyprus, Japan and Singapore signed on to an international plan, the “New York Declaration,” to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia. The New York Declaration is an agreement between the signatory flag states which condemns acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels and seafarers and recognizes that self protection measures taken by vessels can be highly effective in avoiding, delaying and deterring acts of piracy. The nonbinding political document was originally tabled on May 29, 2009.
Links: Britain, USA, Japan, Cyprus, Singapore, Somalia, Ship, Pirates

2009 Sep 22

A sharply divided EU failed to protect the threatened bluefin tuna, as the bloc's Mediterranean nations refused to back even a temporary a ban on catching the fish prized by sushi aficionados. Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Spain, France and Italy, with strong fishermen's lobbies at home, insisted on continuing the hunt despite the precarious state of the species. Conservation groups had earlier criticized the EU for not pushing to list the bluefin tuna under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Links: Italy, Spain, France, EU, Cyprus, Malta, Greece, Fish

Cyprus police said grave robbers over night had stolen the corpse of former Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos after digging up his coffin on the eve of the first anniversary of the statesmen's death. Police discovered the missing body of former President Papadopoulos in another grave on March 8.
Links: Cyprus, Robbery

2010 Jan 11

In Cyprus Andy Hadjicostis (41), the director of the Dias publishing group, was fatally shot outside his home in central Nicosia, in an attack that bore the hallmarks of a contract killing. The gunman fled on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice. 3 men were soon arrested and held pending formal charges. On Feb 5 Cyprus police formally pressed murder charges against TV host Elena Skordelli, her brother Anastasios Krasopoullis and Andreas Grigoriou in the suspected Jan 11 contract killing of Andy Hadjicostis (41), the island's most powerful publisher.
Links: Cyprus, Murder

2010 Jan 25

Cyprus police said they have busted a smuggling ring in Cyprus and recovered dozens of ancient artifacts it planned to sell for euro11 million (15.5 million), including a miniature gold coffin, silver coins and terra-cotta urns. Ten Cypriots were arrested during the raids over the weekend, and authorities were searching for another five suspects, including a Syrian man.
Links: Cyprus

2010 Mar 21

Cyprus police said grave robbers stole the remains of 3 Cyprus Archbishops who led the island's Greek Orthodox church in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sofronios III and Kyrillos II led the Cypriot church between 1865 and 1916 during Ottoman and British colonial rule. Police arrested a Romanian man suspected of vandalizing the tombs.
Links: Cyprus, Robbery

2010 Apr 18

Turkish Cypriots voted for a new leader, aware that their choice could lead to a deadlock in peace talks and possibly jeopardize Turkey's bid for EU membership. Nationalist Dervis Eroglu narrowly defeated leftist incumbent Mehmet Ali Talat in the election with 50.38 percent of the vote, promising to continue reunification talks with rival Greek Cypriots. Talat drew 42.85 percent. With a clear mandate, there is little incentive for Eroglu to abandon his support for two separate states on the island.
Links: Cyprus

Pope Benedict XVI began a pilgrimage to Cyprus bringing a message of peace to the region as Greek Cypriot leaders made a blistering attack on Turkey for its occupation of northern Cyprus.
Links: Cyprus, Vatican

2010 Jun 28

The FBI announced the arrests of 10 alleged deep cover Russian agents after tracking the suspects for years. They were accused of attempting to infiltrate US policymaking circles while posing as ordinary citizens. All 10 were charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the US attorney general. The offense carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. An 11th person allegedly involved in the Russian spy ring was arrested the next day in Cyprus.
Links: Russia, USA, Cyprus, FBI, Espionage

2010 Jun 29

In Cyprus the alleged paymaster of a Russian spy ring was arrested on an Interpol warrant while trying to board a flight to Budapest, Hungary, two days after his 10 alleged co-conspirators were arrested in the United States. His companion, a beautiful younger woman, was allowed to fly out. The suspect, who called himself Christopher Metsos, vanished after handing over a Canadian passport that claimed he was 54 and got released on bail.
Links: Russia, Canada, USA, Cyprus, Espionage

2010 Aug 26

Asil Nadir (69), a Turkish Cypriot businessman, returned to London to face charges of fraud. He had fled Britain almost two decades ago following the spectacular collapse of his business empire. Nadir fled the country in May of 1993, four months before he was scheduled to face trial.
Links: Britain, Cyprus

2010 Sep 26

A boat carrying Jewish activists from Israel, Europe and the US set sail from Cyprus bound for Gaza, in a bid to run Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory.
Links: Cyprus, Israel, Palestine

Two Americans and a British-Cypriot economist won the 2010 Nobel economics prize for developing a theory that helps explain why many people can remain unemployed despite a large number of job vacancies. Federal Reserve board nominee Peter Diamond was honored along with Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides for their analysis of the obstacles that prevent buyers and sellers from efficiently pairing up in markets.
Links: Britain, USA, Cyprus, Nobel Prize

Scientists from Cyprus, England and Greece reported their ability to diagnose Down Syndrome using a simple blood test on pregnant women.
Links: Britain, Cyprus, Greece, Medical

2011 Apr 4

A Cyprus court found a jailed murderer, his brother and another man guilty of unlawfully exhuming the body of Tassos Papadopoulos, the island's former president (2003-2008). Papadopoulos’s body was snatched from a Nicosia cemetery in 2009 and was reburied three months later after police arrested the suspects and found the body.
Links: Cyprus

2011 Jul 11

In Cyprus a massive explosion ripped through a naval base after a brush fire detonated gunpowder stored in containers, killing 13 people, wounding 62. The Vasilikos power station was destroyed taking out half the country’s electricity supply. Defense Minister Costas Papacostas and the country's top military official, National Guard chief Brig. Gen. Petros Tsalikides, resigned over the incident. On Aug 2, 2013, Papacostas (74) was sentenced to 5 years in prison after he was found guilty of manslaughter and causing death through negligence.
Links: Cyprus, Tragedy